Flash Fiction Contest: Horror

The prompt:

Give me a good scare.

Exhalation

Breathing deep, Gia inhaled a noseful of rancid air. She wished for the smell of crisp winter, but smelled only decay and blood. Attempting camouflage yet finding no cover, she surveyed the path through twisted branches. No movement. Am I the last one alive? She readied to run.

Too late.

The sickening touch of a talon ran along her shoulder leaving tiny droplets of blood in its wake. The creature hovered leaking uncongealed flesh. Her lungs struggled to take in its noxious scent.

Gia closed her eyes.

A breeze carried the foul odor away momentarily. She took a purifying breath. The beast's claw moved to her cheek. She exhaled in a rush and thrust her entire body up.

Her piercing scream rang through the trees. She hit the bottom of the embankment hard, knocking the breath out of her.

Unable to move, she watched as the monster pierced her chest. Her head turned at the sound of a salvo of shots. Not alone, after all.

Gia exhaled and breathed no more, gelatinous ruins of the beast melting into the soil around her.